Familiar flamethrower dubbed dark horse candidate to make SF Giants roster

The SF Giants have a number of intriguing non-roster invites in camp at spring training. Reliever Gregory Santos was recently dubbed a dark horse candidate for the Opening Day roster and it is not too difficult to figure out why.

Santos made his MLB debut with the Giants back in 2021 and maybe in some alternate universe it would have been him who ended up as an All-Star closer and Camilo Doval who ended up flaming out and bouncing around from team to team.

SF Giants flamethrower Gregory Santos has a chance to make the team

Things just didn’t quite work out for Santos in his first stint with the Giants and part of that may have had to do with an 80-game suspension after testing positive for a banned substance.

He ended up pitching for the Chicago White Sox in 2023 and had an impressive 3.39 ERA in 60 appearances. It was a campaign that proved he can be a legit big league reliever thanks to his high velocity fastball, but the next two seasons were more of a struggle. 

Chicago traded him to the Seattle Mariners and he really struggled to stay on the field in both 2024 and 2025. He had multiple IL stints and made 16 appearances with Seattle over those two seasons. He was non-tendered by Seattle in the offseason.

The Giants swooped in and signed the familiar flamethrower to a minor league deal as part of their low-cost bullpen remodel in the offseason. There were lots of holes in their relief corps and they filled them with cheap arms, many of them coming off injury.

High-priced relievers often have a way of blowing up in your face so the front office may very well have been wise to employ that modest approach which leaves the door open to a lot of competition in spring training to sort out who will be in the bullpen to start the year.

Santos has as good a chance as anyone. His fastball is still strong and if he is healthy maybe he can look more like the 2023 version of himself this season. 

With a brand new coaching staff, they may just go based off the guys who look best in spring so Santos has a great opportunity to come in and blow everyone away to earn himself a spot on the Opening Day roster.

It would be pretty remarkable if it took five years and stints with two other teams before he realized the hopes the Giants once had for him, but baseball is a funny game and relievers are a fickle breed so maybe that’s the most fitting way it could go down.